After Israeli anchor calls out brutality of ‘occupation’, political leaders land hard on her

Witch hunters didn’t wait a moment before jumping on Oshrat Kotler’s remarks as if they were treasure

Oshrat Kotler

Jonathan Ofir writes in Mondoweiss:

This is a big story in Israel. On Saturday, Channel 13 anchorwoman Oshrat Kotler commented on a case of sadistic Israeli soldier beatings of a Palestinian father and son in occupied territory, saying:

They send children to the army, to the territories, and get them back human animals. That’s the result of the occupation.

The response was immediate. Thousands of expressions of rage streamed in from audiences, and many leaders on the right were condemnatory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted:

Proud of IDF soldiers and love them very much. Oshrat Kotler’s words should be roundly condemned.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett Bennett wrote:

Oshrat, you’re confused. IDF soldiers give their lives so you can sleep peacefully. Human animals are the terrorists who murder children in their beds, a young girl on a walk or a whole family driving on the road. IDF soldiers are our strength. Our children. Apologize.

“After they finished, they started dancing”

The story goes back to January 8th, when Israeli combat soldiers arrested a Palestinian father and his 15-year-old son in the village of Abu Shukheidim in the West Bank. The two, unnamed in news reports, were suspected of aiding As’am Barghouti, a Palestinian accused of killing two soldiers from the same Israeli battalion in December, but the two were said not to be directly involved in the attack.

The two were handcuffed and blindfolded, and the soldiers punched and kicked them, and hit them with their weapons, causing severe wounds. One soldier filmed the event. The soldiers were in fact indicted, and last week, Ynet published some of the testimonies.

The son testified that he was beaten by four soldiers in the face, chest, stomach and legs.

They hit my knee with the gun barrel and my chest, knees, thighs and groin with the butt end… I couldn’t open my left eye. My mouth was full of blood and my shirt was soiled as well. I also bled from my nose.

He added that some of the abuse was verbal as well.One of the soldiers asked me to say ‘In spirit, in blood, we will redeem Palestine’ while I watched him beat up my father. The soldier told me ‘Look at your dad. He deserves to be beaten. You think you’re patriotic.’

He added that no one had intervened to stop the abuse, and that “after they finished, they started dancing.”

The father testified that he was cursed at and hit with a belt. “When I asked them why they were beating me up, they hit me with the butt end of their weapons and one of the soldiers stepped on my face and broke my nose. I bled profusely and wasn’t allowed to speak. I shouted at them but they told me to shut up. I was then hit in the face and lost consciousness.”